Photo by Antonino Visalli on Unsplash U. A. Fanthorpe was a British poet who published nine volumes of poetry during her lifetime. She taught at Cheltenham Ladies College for sixteen years and then left to work as a clerk and receptionist at a psychiatric hospital. She said: Poetry is important because it reaches the places that other kinds of writing can’t reach. I became aware of this myself when I worked as a receptionist in a hospital, and saw how much the doctors and nurses had to leave out of the queerness and sadnesses of the patients because they were confined to prose… Poetry has all the voices–wit, sincerity, pastiche, tragedy, and delight…

Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash Robert Service was born in England, grew up in Scotland, and sailed for the Yukon Wilderness in 1894. He was a prolific poet and became known as the “bard of the Yukon. He was a correspondent during the Balkan Wars for the Toronto Star and an ambulance driver during World War I. His rhythmic, story-telling poetry was very popular. When you’re lost in the Wild, and you’re scared as a child And Death looks you bang in the eye, And you’re sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle To cock your revolver and…die. But the Code of a Man says:  “Fight if you can,” And self-dissolution…

Photo by Federico Respini on Unsplash Willa Cather was an American author who wrote novels about frontier life on the Great Plains. She grew up from the age of ten in Nebraska where she lived among European immigrants. Her books portray the lives and cultures of the people she lived among. For many years she was dismissed as a regional author but she is now appreciated for her nuanced writing and the descriptions she provides of immigrant life. A crimson fire that vanquishes the stars; A pungent odor from the dusty sage; A sudden stirring of the huddled herds; A breaking of the distant table-lands Through purple mists ascending, and the flare Of…